Monday, December 31, 2012

English blues sensations The Wildcards have produced an album of startling originality, entertaining lyrics and amazingly-accomplished tunes. An undeniably-cool blend of jump jive, blues, jazz and rockabilly with great guitar tones and killer beats. (cdbaby)

From the liner notes by Mark Hummel: "On this album, Johnny Dyer and I put together a list of Muddy Water's faves. Mountain Top wanted to put out a CD with Johnny singing Muddy's parts, and me blowing Little Walter and James Cotton parts behind him with an authentic sound. We brought in my band, The Blues Survivors, Rusty Zinn on guitar, Bob Welsh on piano and guitar (Charlie Musselwhite Band), as well as two former Muddy sidemen, Paul Oscher (harp and slide guitar, from 1967-1971), and Francis Clay (drums from 1957-1966), who played on many of the original Muddy sides on Chess Records. Check out the amazing Steve Wolf on electric Fender bass getting a stand-up bass sound. If you close your eyes, you'd think you're in Chess Records' Studios in 1957."

Whiskey is a 1977 LP re-issue of the 1974 album Way Down Yonder. Presumably, the album was re-named and marketed in 1977 to capitalize on the popularity of the country rock and outlaw country genres. Whiskey, however, quickly disappeared into obscurity only to re-surface as a long overdue CD reissue on the outstanding Wounded Bird Records in 2008. Because of these circumstances and its long absence from print, Whiskey is somewhat of a "lost" Charle Daniels Band album.

Whiskey plays like a distilled version of 1975's masterpiece Fire on the Mountain. A huge improvement over the disappointing 1973 effort Honey in the Rock, Whiskey is a solid country rock effort that makes it clear that Charlie Daniels was the pace setter for the genre by 1974. While Whiskey is not as polished as Fire on the Mountain and many of the other albums released during Charlie Daniels' commercial zenith, the album is every bit as much fun to listen to, if not more.

This is a must-have for listeners of the Charlie Daniels Band who long for another album like Fire on the Mountain, Nightrider, High Lonesome and Saddle Tramp. (Warren R. Mason)

Saturday, December 29, 2012

The Blues Fools' third album, "On The Move", includes a well deserved endorsement from Charlie Musselwhite. Since the release of their debut ("Fools In The Blues"), they have attracted wide interest, and appeared at festivals across Europe, but not mainland Britain (yet!). They sound like an authentic West Coast harp-led band, although they hail from Hungary.

The opening bars of "Swingin' All Night Long" grab your attention with an explosive combination of harp and horns. The Blues Fools proceed to swing their way through a tune that could quite easily have come from the pen of the late, great William Clarke. In fact, it is the first of 11 (out of 12) original tracks. They follow it with a more jump blues oriented number ("Fat Mama Boogie") before a real boogie (a la Canned Heat) on "Too Tight To Tame", where the band's excellent guitarist Laszlo "Jack" Horvath handles vocals.

Band leader, Matt Pribojszki, is something of a harp maestro, and shows off his more mellow side on the classy cool jazz of "Coffee Break". After Toots Thielemans meets jump blues on "Foolin' Around", the horn section are reintroduced for the album's only cover track, a belting version of Slim Harpo's "Dynamite".

The album then provides a breather, with the low key piano dominated "Soul Stealin' Mama". They then shuffle their way through "Bad Things About You", before the jazz influence resurfaces on "Sharp Dressed Boogie Boy".

Eventually the horns return to round it all off in fine style on "High Class Baby". It is another real swinger, blending harp and horns in perfect harmony once more. The band certainly know how to write a catchy hook line, and this one just leaves you reaching out to punch the replay button.

Smak (Serbian Cyrillic: ????; trans. Endtime) is a Serbian and former Yugoslav rock band from Kragujevac. The group reached the peak of popularity in the 1970s when it was one of the most notable acts of the former Yugoslav rock scene. The band's leader, guitarist Radomir Mihajlovic, nicknamed "Tocak" ("The Wheel"), is considered one of the most influential guitarists on the former Yugoslav rock scene.

Formed in 1971 by the guitarist Radomir Mihajlovic "Tocak" and drummer Dejan Stojanovic "Kepa", the band did not get a default lineup until 1975 by which time bassist Zoran Milanovic, vocalist Boris Arandelovic and keyboard player Laza Ristovski consisted the official band membership. However, after recording their eponymous debut album, Ristovski left the band and the remaining quartet recorded their subsequent albums with various keyboard players before disbanding in 1981.

Smak's eponymous debut album, Smak (Endtime), was released in 1975 and featured five tracks: the A-side featured "Perle" ("Beads"), "Mracni mol" ("Dark Passage"), "Blues u parku" ("Blues in the Park") and the shortened "Biska 2", whereas the B-side featured twenty minute instrumental "Put od balona" ("The Road Made of Balloons"), originally entitled "Biska 20". Despite its length, the latter track was recorded in a single take and was inspired by the Korni Grupa symphonic rock tracks such as "Prvo svetlo u kuci broj 4" ("The First Light in the House Number 4") and "Jedna žena" ("A Woman"). The album featured the lyrics mostly written by Mihajlovic, but shortly after, the band asked Mirko Glišic from Kragujevac for the same occupation, with whom the band collaborated on their subsequent releases. The album received mixed to favorable critics, but nevertheless went silver, being sold in about twenty thousand copies. The album had also increased the cult status of Mihajlovic's guitar playing, which was confirmed on their three-week tour of East Germany. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smak)

Friday, December 28, 2012

Going All In album by Firsthand was released Nov 13, 2007 on the CD Baby (distributor) label. Going All In is another hard driving "southern style" classic from Firsthand. As usual the musical arrangements are second to none and the harmonies are incredible! While the guitars howl the vocals match them loud and clear. Once again there is excellent keyboard work and some nice piano pieces which have become a hallmark of the band. This is a powerful testament to the claim, "best original music on the Gulf Coast" and is sure to please the ear! The album was recorded at Southern Sound Productions in Mobile Alabama and mastered at Diamondisc Audio in Nashville, Tennessee. (http://www.cduniverse.com)

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Heartsfield's lead man and prolific songwriter Perry Jordan writes this about Disrupting the Country:

"Once decided that it was time to get our rears moving on a new recording, the first thing that usually happens is asking that pesky ole question, DAMN, WHAT SONGS!? Since “the decision” was made last year to get ‘er done, it was time to get something to actually start tracking (recording).

"Not sure if it is a blessing or a curse but ever since, about 1969, I have had this strong addiction to writing songs, which means I usually have a backlog of tunes or ideas hiding out back in my trusty ole' tune shed. Now in this virtual shed are boxes of full songs, 1/2 done, 1/4 done, just little seeds of ideas of songs & moments that have grabbed me with enough of an inspiration to actually get my trusty recorder rollin’. I have two or three portable recorders, one of which is almost always with me. My current favorite is a lowly, low budget, horrible-sounding Olympus digital memo recorder that is used mostly for lectures, business meetings, self-dictation and things of that nature, but not intended for music at all. I love it because it’s only about 1 x 3 inches in size, works simply, is easy to carry, and is ready to go at a moment's notice--with one hand, by the way!

"All that is extremely important because in my case, ideas usually hit at very inopportune times, when getting them recorded is a challenge for sure. Yes folks, it’s moments like using the john, cutting the grass, cookin’ some grub, practicing geetar, or the ole’ 4 am thunderbolt that startles you out of a deep. deep slumber—ya just don’t know when it’s gonna hit.

"But by far the most frequent place I get my song ideas and writing done is rolling down the road in my van. Must be a hangover of all those years of having to do it that way, while we were touring 300 days a year, staring at the white lines on roads all across the country. In fact, most of the original ideas on my trusty Olympus have a chorus of 2 or 3 dogs barking in the background for just this reason; the magic road lets me connect to whatever blessed source delivers these songs to me from some mysterious part of the song universe.

"So one of the first steps is to check the tune shed for musical seeds that seems worthy to pursue and attempt to nurture into a full-grown song. Since I usually have cassettes and CDs full of 100 or so 10 sec. to 2 min. song ideas in various stages of readiness, this can be a long task but it sure is a fun adventure. Truly is amazing that some of that stuff I saved at some point, I thought had any possibility of being interesting, good or worthy of remembering! I mean some of those 4 am gems are proof that what may seem like a diamond in the rough then, a few weeks later can become about as appealing as your neighbors' car alarm blaring at you on an extreme hangover morning! But usually I find a couple pieces that get the juices flowing, grab my attention and have me curious.

"Now comes the hardest part for me, that blank piece of paper staring back at me just a daring me to try my hand at song writing again. Imagine you're painting a picture and all that’s on your canvas is a few dabs of red here and a couple splotches of yellow there. Now the catch is, where do you go with it. That’s kinda how it is, plus for me, for many years now, when I get to this point I have a deep fear that it’s all over. I’ll never write another good tune again, the well’s dry and my creative side has done up and left 'Jordan town,' adios amigo! In fact whenever I finish a 'good song,' I am sure it was THE LAST ONE and I thank the song goddess for her kindness in allowing me to finish just one more before my maker comes a calling.

"Well, turns out 'Toast,' a song on the new CD, was one of those seeds. No words, just a groove that spoke to me, but since it had a mood I just laid down some guitar and drove around listening until the message and lyric came to me. Usually once I get one sort of done and I kill that ole’ fear that it’s all over, the gates open up and I feel that ole’ song goddess smile upon me with another blessing to let me have at it one more time. More on the particular tunes in later episodes...

"Leave ya with some recording mottos stuck up on the wall to help guide us along the long road traveled to getting ‘er done! Til next time, keep on smilin’"